After four awesome years, today is my last day as Editor-in-Chief of Game Front.

Looking back, it’s been an eventful four years. FileFront (check out this rocking old-school design) became Game Front. Great people were hired. Game reviews, news posts and features were written. E3s were conquered, late nights were worked. Through it all, Game Front grew to 5 million unique visitors globally, none of which could have been achieved without the help of awesome people. You may not have seen tons of my work on the homepage here the past few years–I’ve been most needed behind the scenes, editing articles, looking for good people and coaching a staff. But if you’ve ever enjoyed the articles we’ve written, or the videos we’ve made, it’s likely due to the talent and hard work of these people:

Credit I will take, and one thing I know I got right was learning precisely when and how to get out of each of their way, and let them do what they do.

Going forward, the site will be in their capable hands. I am sure they will do right by all of you, our readers, for whom I’ve saved my final thank you: You’ve kept us honest, and given us encouragement and criticism when we’ve needed it, which I always appreciated. I hope you’ll stay in touch.

Soon I’ll be moving on to new projects, and if you’d like to keep in touch with me follow me on Twitter (@MarkBurnham).

With the 15th anniversary of Half-Life happening today, we half-expected1 Valve to finally stop trolling the Internet and get around to announcing Half-Life 3. No dice, unfortunately. The Steam purveyors obstinately refuse to just say yes or no to the question of whether it’s actually working on the game.

Fortunately, we have the next best thing. We’ve recently learned that our own Mitch Saltzman has never actually finished Half-Life 2. Apparently it freaked him out too much, poor kid. However, he’s bent on correcting this mistake, and in half an hour – that’s 1:00 PM Pacific – he’ll be live-streaming his attempt to do just that.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/half-life-1-turns-15-years-old-watch-mitch-play-hl2/feed/0Game Front Podcast #8: AC4 Problems & How Game Reviews Workhttp://www.gamefront.com/game-front-podcast-8-aciv-problems-how-game-reviews-work/
http://www.gamefront.com/game-front-podcast-8-aciv-problems-how-game-reviews-work/#commentsMon, 11 Nov 2013 21:59:42 +0000Mark Burnhamhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=252318Sit down with the editors at Game Front as we talk about what's going on in gaming this week.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/game-front-podcast-8-aciv-problems-how-game-reviews-work/feed/0Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag,Features,GameFront Podcast,Next Gen Console Launch,Playstation 3,Playstation 4,Xbox 360,Xbox OneSit down with the editors at Game Front as we talk about what's going on in gaming this week.Sit down with the editors at Game Front as we talk about what's going on in gaming this week.Game Frontno1:11:30Xbox One Launch Lineup Preview: Potential, Little Substancehttp://www.gamefront.com/xbox-one-launch-lineup-impressions-potential-not-actual-energy/
http://www.gamefront.com/xbox-one-launch-lineup-impressions-potential-not-actual-energy/#commentsWed, 06 Nov 2013 17:00:36 +0000Mark Burnhamhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=250722After sampling the Xbox One's launch lineup, there are a few standout titles to be excited about, but in typical launch fashion, this one is best enjoyed by super-fans and early adopters.

If you buy the Xbox One on Nov. 22 for half a grand — and you want to feel good about your investment — we recommend you can comfortably identify yourself as falling into one of the following categories:

You’re an “early adopter,” and you get high on the idea of owning brand new, potential-rich technology.

You’re a Microsoft brand loyalist, and also fall into No. 1. You owned one of, or all of, the following: Xbox 360, Xbox, Windows PC, Windows Phone, SmartGlass, maybe even a Zune, and your purchase of the XB1 is a forgone conclusion. Go for it, this is for you.

You’ve always wanted to get into console gaming but haven’t yet, and you figure why not start here, and start early.

You feel that you simply must play Ryse: Son of Rome, or Dead Rising 3, or Crimson Dragon, right now.

You love the Kinect, and the idea of navigating TV listings with it.

If you don’t fall into any of the above categories, there probably isn’t a burning need for you to rush out and buy the Xbox One right away. Like all consoles upon launch, the Xbox One is like a nicely built ship traveling at an extremely slow rate of speed. The initial game lineup is thin, risk-averse, and underpowered — and that isn’t really anyone’s fault. That’s always how this goes. A console’s launch has more potential energy than kinetic, and it probably won’t be until the end of 2014 that we see the Xbox One really start to cook.

At its worst, the Xbox One’s launch lineup looks like a regular game release month — could be any old November — but one you’ll pay an extra $500 to enjoy. At its best, it’s a decent lineup with at least a couple games you’ll pick up and enjoy right away, with more on the way relatively soon (like March 2014′s Titanfall, for instance).

Having said all that, Game Front did get a chance to play-test a bunch of Xbox One launch titles at a media event in San Francisco last week. For those interested, here’s a little about each of the games we — Editor-in-Chief Mark Burnham and Associate Editor Ben Richardson — played. You can also check out our more in-depth impressions of Ryse and Project Spark.

Ryse

Mark Burnham

This is undoubtedly the flagship Xbox One launch title, a gory, gritty and (somewhat surprisingly) fun brawler set in ancient Rome … kind of. Ryse plays fast and loose with history, selecting the most bad-ass characters and historical elements from different time periods and throwing them all together. You play as Marius Titus, a Roman Centurion who Must Not Be Effed With.

Ryse is a much better game than it seemed at E3 2013, where it was presented as an overly easy, button-mashing QTE-fest with swords. Instead of Rome QTE: The Game, Ryse comes off more as Batman: Arkham Rome. Clearly inspired by the Caped Crusader’s rhythm-based combat system, Ryse rewards perfect timing with more XP, better mo-capped “executions” (of which there are more than 100), and sheer depth of challenge. Much like Batman’s “evade” ability in the Akrham games, Marius can shield-parry on a dime when being attacked from any direction (within one frame, I was told). This anchors the system and sets up the ability to string together long, fluid combos.

Environments are varied and look great on the Xbox One (even though Ryse “only” runs at 900p), ranging from invaded Roman cities to shipwrecked beaches to dark forests full of barbarians. While the enemy character models can look almost comically similar — I was attacked by a group of identical, fat, long-haired enemies, standing side-by-side — this is definitely one to check out if you’re picking up an Xbox One in November.

Crimson Dragon

Mark Burnham

It’s described as a “brand-new IP,” but Crimson Dragon is clearly a spiritual successor to the 2002 classic Panzer Dragoon Orta, which I played a sh$%-ton of on the original Xbox.

The essence of gameplay is the same — you control a flying dragon through sprawling on-rails levels, and use alternating modes of fire to strategically eviscerate and cook clumps of enemies large and small, eventually taking on massive, multi-phase Japanese-grade bosses. A key difference in Crimson Dragon is that you’re a part of an entire army of dragon-riding soldiers, which means that you’ll have access to multiple species of dragon. You can access a sort of bestiary where you keep them all, and can spend points to upgrade (or “evolve”) them into new, more powerful forms. One nice touch: evolved dragons start to look more ornate and beastly as they are improved in-game.

Rail shooters are especially tough to get a handle on with only a few minutes of play, so it’s difficult to say how this one is shaping up — and, more importantly, if it will live up to the beautifully designed Panzer Dragon Orta. This may be my nostalgia talking, but that isn’t an easy act to follow (which could be why it’s being purposefully branded as a “brand-new” IP…)

For Panzer Dragoon fans, it’s at least a comfort that series creator Yukio Futatsugi is still at the helm. That news, combined with the fact that Crimson Dragon is available on Xbox One via XBL on day one, and the fact that it is your only option to satiate that shooter fix at launch, makes it at least worth a look.

Ryse: Son of Rome has changed, thankfully, and isn’t the same game we saw at E3 2013. What at first seemed like QTE Rome: The Game has morphed in a few months into something more like Batman: Arkham Civitas. The combat system clearly takes a few pages from Rocksteady’s perfect mix of rhythm and improvisation to create something that’s easy to pick up, difficult to master–and it’s bloody, gritty, and takes place in a sort of “greatest” hits version of Roman history.

You play as Marius Titus, a Roman Centurion with a chip on his shoulder, seeking revenge for a loss we won’t spoil ahead of launch. Suffice to say, Rome is invaded by barbarians, and Marius is tasked with driving them back–first out of the city, then to shipwrecked beaches, and (at the conclusion of the demo I played) into dark forests full of bonfires and barbarians wearing bone helmets.

It’s a visually impressive game, which is to be expected from Crytek–mostly notable during combat, which plays out with the flair of choreographed battle scenes from films like Troy, or 300. Two key elements are borrowed from the Batman Arkham series: a sense of rhythm (or “heartbeat,” as Game Director P.J. Esteves put it), which rewards the player with more fluid sequences and higher combo counters; and the “block/parry” mechanic, which allows Marius to sort of shield-bash on a dime when attacked from any direction. You could probably button-mash your way to victory, but you’d be missing out. When you’re playing it right, being attacked from all sides leads to careful, considered combat scenes that look pretty awesome.

The game’s “perfect hit” system is its deepest layer. If you begin your second strike right as the first strike lands, you’ll achieve a perfect hit, and see a message on screen informing you of this. When you achieve upwards of 10 unbroken perfect hits, Marius will go into what’s called “Burning Eagle” mode. This greatly increases the power of each strike, and sends enemies into an executable state with a single hit. Playing the game’s “Normal” difficult setting, this was easier said than done. Trying my damnedest, I could only string together about four perfect hits in a row, before I was hit, which resets your combo counter. Once you understand the basic flow of combat, this is why you’ll charge into combat, for another chance to rack up perfect hits.

When enemies are hit enough times, an overhead icon appears indicating they’re ready to be executed. With a trigger-pull the combat transitions into slow motion, and enemies will glow in a series of successive colors, matching buttons. Blue for X, yellow for Y, of course. Successfully push the right buttons, and Marius will send the enemy to Hades in an extended, bloody and oftentimes dismembering takedown. There are apparently over 100 different mo-capped executions like this.

As you engage in battle, you’ll earn XP, which can be spent on a somewhat complicated upgrade system. You can purchase new executions, which fall into categories based on the benefits they provide. For instance, there’s an entire tree of health-upgrading executions, which replenish your health when used. Likewise, there are XP-gain executions, and “focus” executions–which earn you more focus energy. Focus energy can be expended to activate a sort of temporary bullet time, allowing you to fly around the battle field and slice dudes while they move at a fraction of the speed.

The upgrade system goes deeper, though, allowing you to unlock general stat perks, like being able to activate Burning Eagle after fewer and fewer perfect hits. It’s the kind of system you’ll need to spend some time with.

This is all quite a lot of power to give a Roman soldier, and a looming question I have is will Ryse: Son of Rome be too easy? It’s difficult to tell, as the builds we played were all but maxed out on upgrades, so I cut through barbarians like butter. Crytek didn’t help the game’s post-E3 reception when they described its combat system as “mashing to mastery,” either. Perhaps it was a mere poor choice of words, as you could easily describe the Arkham series, or even God of War, as being “mashable,” couldn’t you? Mashing doesn’t seem to be a deal breaker in and of itself, but the overall package is a difficult balance. The game needn’t be Ninja Gaiden, or Dark Souls, but it needs to pack a serious challenge, and you need to be gradually punished for sloppy play. If you suck, you should die, period. If the game treats the action game crowd like babies, Ryse very well may fall. Challenge and reward will be key to the game’s final success, methinks.

Another pilum in my side as I played was the complete lack of enemy variety. There were shockingly (and sometimes comically) few individual enemy models. I killed dozens of barbarian twins, sometimes what seemed like octuplets when attackings in groups. My favorite of these moments was executing a fat, long-haired barbarian, only to have to immediately parry his fat, long-haired twin brother from behind.

Lastly, I’m unsure how much variety there is here. This is a fun game. You storm around slicing dudes up, and the combat has depth. But what else is there? I didn’t play long enough to get an answer to that question, but it needs something else I wasn’t able to see–a rich, dramatic and involving story; insane set pieces, battles and objectives. An old music teacher of mine had a saying (that he used on a struggling jazz drummer): triplet drum fills are like cherries; delicious, until you have too many. What else Ryse has on the menu I’m not sure.

Lastly lastly, what about the story? Is it a mere revenge tale? Will Roman political intrigue play a role? What about the gods? Generally, how will Crytek appropriate the wealth of ancient Roman culture into the game to make it more interesting?

What’s here for sure is a great looking, fun action game set in ancient Rome, full of gore, and solid acting. That’s at least a good start, and more than I initially thought.

Back in September, Blizzard filed a trademark for Heroes of the Storm, a supposed bit of “Computer game software, computer game discs, downloadable computer game software…,” blah blah.

So what is it? Is it a new WoW expansion, as some had postulated? No, no. Get out of here. It’s just the new name for Blizzard All-Stars (as our Mike Sharkey had predicted), previously known as Blizzard DOTA–basically, it’s a MOBA featuring various Blizzard heroes. That’s about all we know, as no other information accompanied the announcement, and we’ve been unable to dig up anything else. So basically, what I’m saying is, take whatever you currently know, or knew, about Blizzard All-Stars, and just move that knowledge into a new file in your brain, and title in Heroes of the Storm. That’s the news.

It has a trailer, but it’s an irritating, childish cartoon so bereft of information I can’t in good faith embed it here. You can check it out if you’d like here, but you’ve been warned.

The long answer starts with four examples of companies who have each, in their own way, failed to smoothly launch their games: Blizzard with Diablo 3, EA with SimCity, Square Enix with FFXIV and now Rockstar with GTA Online (these are just immediately off the top of my head, but I’m sure I’m forgetting some). All of these games’ launches created massive user backlash, and all sorts of scrambling drama for the devs. It’s all too tiring to recount here, but I’m guessing you remember at least one of those.

At Game Front, we’re usually staunch consumer advocates, ready to call out anyone trying to rip you off. And when you can’t play a game on Day 1, it’s understandable to feel swindled. How is it that Rockstar, who made $1 billion in two days, can’t figure out how to get GTA Online to run smoothly? There are smart, creative people working there.

I’m starting to think we’re banging our collective heads against a wall that isn’t going to break anytime soon. Moreover, the wall may not have been built by bricks of developer or publisher incompetence, but rather an economic reality. In all likelihood, it doesn’t make economic sense for, say, Blizzard to buy enough servers to put a small country online, just for Day 1. For any online game launch, Day 1 is the most difficult.

For developers, the problem seems like it must come down to one of investment. How much do you invest in servers, and not just in the short term, but the long term? To use an analogy, in order to accommodate a horde of scampering hamsters, a tunnel must be built, which costs money. The size of the tunnel should be commensurate with the size of the hamster horde. But how many hamsters will there be? Let’s say you have some sort of ballpark. It’ll be about 10,000. You have two choices: A). Build a large, expensive tunnel big enough to allow 10,000 hamsters to flow freely, at any given time. B). Build a small, budget tunnel, one that will be clogged with hamsters for days, as they push through in anguish…until they don’t, several days later, when the traffic dies down. The large tunnel gains you hamster-happiness, and loses you money. The small tunnel saves you money, but causes hamster-anxiety for a few short days.

NOTE: this analogy was inspired by this Diablo 3 meme.
I’ll give you one guess as to which of these options most developers choose. And can you blame them? If you ran a business, and those were your only two options, which would you choose? How this decision is communicated to your customers is another matter entirely (more on that later).

What do developers have to say about this?
Usually they’re silent, but back in March we spoke with Cryptic’s Jack Emmert about the then-forthcoming launch of the MMO Neverwinter, and asked Emmert to chime in on online launches. In the words of a man who’s done this before, here’s what he said about building a hamster tunnel that’s too big:

“Inevitably, the population decreases over time, and you end up shutting down servers and merging them. That alienates players, and it gives you a bad taste in your mouth as a company.”

“As soon as you start shutting servers down, it’s a snowball, because there’s nothing more important in MMOs than the belief that there’s a future. It’s a persistent world. You’re committing your time into the game, and if you don’t see that there’s new stuff on the horizon, you’re not going to want to play anymore.”

If you’re looking for answer to the question “why can’t they just have enough servers at launch,” that’s one answer right there — over-compensating is a possibility, and shutting down servers post-launch presents its own problems for game developers. Not to mention, over-buying servers sounds expensive. Then what happens when you don’t need them anymore? You have to tear down your hamster tunnel, and you’ve wasted money.

So What the Hell do we Do?
Like I previously said, this doesn’t seem a problem that’s going to just vanish any time soon. It’s a messy collision between IT limitations, business realities, bad PR/community management and serious user backlash. Consumers aren’t necessarily powerless, but this won’t change without developers taking more active risk. Along both of those lines, here are some thoughts on how to move forward.

1. Someone start a 3rd party server company specializing in helping online games have smooth Day 1 launches. They’d focus on competitive server rental prices, and would be contracted for a number of days or weeks until the game is well on its feet. Developers shell out some cash for a smooth launch, the community notices, and a 3rd party company employing people takes a cut. Everyone wins.

2. Developers should try Jack Emmert’s idea of a “shardless” design, which they used for Neverwinter:

“One of the things that we do to avoid that is that we have a shardless design,” he replied. “We’re doing that instead of the typical MMO structure where a shard supports maybe 10,000 to 20,000 concurrent connected users, and you end up with five, seven, maybe 10 servers at launch. But what we have is a single server. Everybody is playing simultaneously in the same exact shard. How this is modular is that we can add or subtract CPUs on that shard to make it more robust, or to shrink it as demand changes. That way players are never inconvenienced about changing shards.”

3. What about actually having digital versions of a game “sell out” for a while, when you’ve reached the number of preorders equal to your ability to serve those players smoothly on Day 1. This could even create a little buzz-building scarcity. Hey, it works for iPhones, PS4s and hard copies of games, doesn’t it? Square Enix kinda/sorta did this with FFXIV, but only after the game’s server woes kicked into high gear. It’d be nice to seem some experimentation on this with actual planning.

4. Consumers (and I think this is a big one), stop buying online games on Day 1. Whatever the actual release date of the game is, choose a date at least one week from that date, then buy the game. When you pay a developer $60 up front for a game that hasn’t even been tested yet, you’re sending a pretty big message about your willingness as a consumer.

5. Developers, stop acting like your game is going to work on Day 1. Be transparent with the community, admit you may have some problems, but be very communicative about what those problems are, and when solutions will be exacted. Rockstar took this road with GTA Online, outright admitting they wouldn’t have a smooth launch. That’s at least something and I applaud them for their candor. It helps that GTA Online is free, too.

6. Consumers, understand that just because you’re angry, and you passively expect a game to work on Day 1, it still may not. I don’t blame you for that, but instead I’d encourage you to refer to #4. Just vote with your wallet. Stop giving developers your money until you’ve given the game time to get on its feet, and you’ve verified it works. At some point, it isn’t just developer greed/incompetence causing you pain — you chose to spend money on a product that past precedent shows is very, very unlikely to work right at launch.

Once more, this article is in no way meant to belittle the anger or injustice you feel when a game doesn’t work right at launch. Rather, understand that merely expecting something to change (‘it’ll be different this time’) doesn’t mean it will. Additionally, understand there’s more going on here than outright greed and/or incompetence. These launch issues aren’t a fluke, and it’s an actual problem that’s probably here to stay for a while.

How you react to that is up to you, and unfortunately how much developers care is up to them. We can hope they get the messages we send (refund requests, not buying games on day 1, etc.) but passively expecting a change won’t work. Furthermore, you’ll just end up wasting a ton of anger and energy.

What do you think? We certainly don’t have all the answers, so we invite any ideas/suggestions you may have in the comments.

Carter’s pre-trial hearing was just held on Monday September 23, the focus of which was to attend to specific discovery requests previously filed by Carter’s defense.

Among them was a request to have the entire Facebook thread in question handed over to the defense. Part of the thread (pictured below) was captured via cell phone screenshot, but the entire thread has since been deleted. When asked by the state to produce a copy of the entire thread, Facebook reportedly declined. Carter’s attorney Don Flanary spoke with Game Front today, and explained the situation:

“We don’t have the whole thread. Whoever was the initial owner or generator of the thread took it down. Facebook told the government that they don’t have a copy of it, because it was deleted and taken down.

That sounds interesting, regarding all that we’ve heard in the last two months about what the government is able to do regarding preserving people’s Facebooks and all the information. I find it a little bit strange that Facebook says it’s lost and gone forever. I didn’t think anything was lost and gone forever.”

The entirety of the thread would benefit the defense, as it reportedly contains context that further shades Carter’s comments as a flippant joke (not a serious threat), and also displays a group argument with further context. “There’s context in what we see in what we have,” Flanary noted. “But there would be more context if we saw the entire thread. We have everything to gain by seeing the context.”

And perhaps you’ve mused about the merger of these two things, as they do seem to dovetail nicely together, don’t they. In both stories, you have (among other things) the precarious balance of a life of crime with more virtuous ambitions.

With this in mind (and just for fun), we present Grand Theft Auto: Breaking Bad, an original graphic designed by Game Front’s CJ Miozzi, (@Rhykker) and written by Ross Lincoln (@RossALincoln). It’s done in the style of a GTA strategy guide excerpt, complete with a map of Albuquerque, points of interest and a few mission descriptions.

Enjoy, bitch…

Click images below for full size versions. You can also download the entire full sized graphic from Game Front right here.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/if-grand-theft-auto-breaking-bad-existed-graphic/feed/3Game Front Podcast #1: GTA 5 – The Good, Bad & The Lack of PChttp://www.gamefront.com/game-front-podcast-1-gta-5-the-good-bad-the-lack-of-pc/
http://www.gamefront.com/game-front-podcast-1-gta-5-the-good-bad-the-lack-of-pc/#commentsSat, 21 Sep 2013 00:56:22 +0000Mark Burnhamhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=241578In which we discuss Grand Theft Auto 5: what we like (so far), what we don't like, and we also touch on the lack of a PC version.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/game-front-podcast-1-gta-5-the-good-bad-the-lack-of-pc/feed/5Features,GameFront Podcast,Grand Theft Auto 5,PC,Playstation 3,Xbox 360In which we discuss Grand Theft Auto 5: what we like (so far), what we don't like, and we also touch on the lack of a PC version.In which we discuss Grand Theft Auto 5: what we like (so far), what we don't like, and we also touch on the lack of a PC version.Game Frontno44:40GTA V: What’s Your Favorite Moment So Far? (Part 1)http://www.gamefront.com/gta-v-whats-been-your-favorite-moment-so-far-part-1/
http://www.gamefront.com/gta-v-whats-been-your-favorite-moment-so-far-part-1/#commentsWed, 18 Sep 2013 01:10:15 +0000Mark Burnhamhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=240557With a world as huge and rich as GTA V’s Los Santos, there’s quite obviously a lot to see, do,...

With a world as huge and rich as GTA V’s Los Santos, there’s quite obviously a lot to see, do, destroy and everything in between.

With that in mind (and with Ross Lincoln’s review on the way later this week), we’ll be doing a daily post sharing GF staffers’ stories about cool, unique or otherwise noteworthy stuff we’ve experienced in GTA V. And of course, you guys are invited to chime in and share how your rampage through Los Santos has been so far.

Mine is pretty simple, but was instantly gratifying on a gameplay level, and was also just kind of a cool moment. In one of the first missions, Franklin is tasked with stealing a car for his employer, a crooked car salesman. On the way back to the dealership, a race ensues between Franklin and his friend Lamar, and you’re given a crash course in GTA V’s revised driving mechanics.

So there I am, racing Lamar in a very fast red car, and I see that (crap…) in seconds I’m about to hit an intersection clogged with traffic, and unless I do something drastic I’m about to die hard. I trigger Franklin’s special ability, which is basically Matrix-style bullet time, but it only works in cars, and only for a limited amount of time. What was surely a death trap becomes a challenge–steering the car through a gap in the traffic so small there’s no margin of error. I make it, just barely, and kick off Franklin’s ability on the other side.

If that hadn’t been GTA V, what would have happened? I’d have pulled right, hit a street light, had to reverse awkwardly, and expletives would have been uttered. Instead, you can create cool action movie moments like the above and keep playing. Good stuff.

Driving around Los Santos in GTA V is strange. Really, really strange. I live in Los Angeles, and the strange sense of déjà vu I would often experience as I entered a new area that I knew in my head I had never been to before even though it felt so intimately familiar to me really threw me off. There are the weirdly opulent LA metro stations, a mall that is the spitting image of the Beverly Center, a stretch of road that I could have sworn was taken straight from Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, and so on. If nothing else, Rockstar nailed the look of the real world that surrounds me every day when they built this new version of Los Santos.

And then the sun went down. LA in our world features some readily identifiable nighttime ambience — always lit but never glowing in most places — and LS hit the lighting perfectly. It’s almost unsettling, and definitely incredible.

Like Phil, my first take-away is the fact that, fake or not, this game just oozes Los Angeles. It doesn’t get everything correctly, or course. For example, Los Angeles’ public transit system is actually great (it’s only terrible on the West Side). Also, the cliches and tropes that define said West Side don’t actually apply east of Highland. But it’s full of moments that feel almost creepy-real.

Case in point: while playing the game this afternoon, I was interrupted when, in real life, several police cars careened down Beverly Blvd, right by my house, sirens blaring. This coincidentally happened as a television production happened to filming something on my street. Not 20 minutes later, during a side mission in which, as Franklin, I helped a paparazzo take compromising photos of a fading star, a random police chase almost caused me to fail the mission.

If someone in an SUV had breezed through a stop sign while texting, it would have been exact.

Andrew Wilson was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Electronic Arts in September 2013.

Mr. Wilson has held several strategic positions since joining EA in 2000, providing leadership on product and brand development for both packaged goods and digital services. Most recently, Mr. Wilson served as Executive Vice President of EA SPORTS and Origin, EA’s consumer platform for downloading digital games.

Prior to his position leading EA SPORTS, Mr. Wilson directed worldwide development across the EA SPORTS portfolio of franchises. He also led EA’s Online Organization overseeing the direct-to-consumer business, Asia Online Publishing as well as the EA studio in Seoul, Korea. Mr. Wilson also previously served as Vice President and Executive Producer of the EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer Division. He was responsible for the strategic, creative and business direction of all EA SPORTS soccer games, including FIFA, FIFA World Cup, Euro, FIFA Manager and FIFA Street.

A native of Geelong, Victoria, Australia, Mr. Wilson has worked for EA in all aspects of the business including Business Development, Licensing, Marketing and Production. Before joining EA, Mr. Wilson worked for a consortium of online companies that specialized primarily in the creation of content and services in sports and entertainment media.

]]>Earlier today, we reported on a bit of tough news for US gamers who purchased GTA V on PSN–unlike EU gamers, you can’t (or couldn’t now…) pre-load the game. Instead, you’d need to wait until 12:01 AM EST to start the game’s 18 GB download. Not convenient.

However, when 9:01 PM PST rolled around, it appeared the “Download” button on GTA V had vanished from the PlayStation Store. Gamers took to Twitter to vent their rage and seek solutions. I was trying to get it working for about 45 minutes there myself.

This one had me laughing.

I’m so glad PSN works flawlessly so I can download GTA at midnight. #itdoesntandicant

At one point, selecting GTA V from the Day 1 Digital section lead me to this sad looking image, over and over (apologies for the low quality).

Shut up, how do I fix it so I can start the download and go to bed?

After digging around, what seemed to fix it for me was searching for “Grand Theft Auto V” in the PlayStation Store and selecting it from search results, rather than selecting it from the Day 1 Digital section. Try that, and hopefully you hit the GTA V product page that has a download button.

Mine is downloading now, and only about 250 minutes left to go…Well, I mean, ok–the digital future we’ve been hearing about, maybe we haven’t quite arrived there yet. There are things called servers, and when they get busy stuff goes slow. It isn’t really surprising, is it?

We’ve reached out to Sony for comment on these issues, and will update with more as we have it. And while you’re waiting for it to download, you can come watch us livestream the game at 12AM PST on our Twitch channel.

In addition to telling intense stories of crime, revenge and redemption, Grand Theft Auto games also have a clear strain of humor and frivolity–notably, in the form of all the great hidden easter eggs.

So, on the eve of Grand Theft Auto V, join us as we take a look back at some of our favorite easter eggs from the series.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/top-10-best-easter-eggs-in-the-grand-theft-auto-series/feed/1Sony: PS3 Version of GTA V Can’t Be Pre-Loaded in the UShttp://www.gamefront.com/sony-ps3-version-of-gta-v-cant-be-pre-loaded-in-the-us/
http://www.gamefront.com/sony-ps3-version-of-gta-v-cant-be-pre-loaded-in-the-us/#commentsMon, 16 Sep 2013 19:39:28 +0000Mark Burnhamhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=240083Nope. You thought you could, but you can't. Because you can't.

UPDATE: To clarify, the initial download of GTA V on PSN requires 36 GB of hard drive space. However, after unpacking the game will only occupy 18 GB.

If you’ve pre-ordered the PS3 “Day 1 Digital” version of GTA V through the PlayStation Store, surprise Americans: you can’t pre-load the game’s absolutely MASSIVE 36 gig install download (after unpacking, the game’s actual size is supposedly around 18 GB). You’ll need to wait until 12:01 EST to start the download. If you live in Europe, congratulations, you can pre-load.

Hey guys,
“From our end, SCEA has never announced anything regarding any pre-loading functionality. This is functionality that has been used at rare times in EU, however there are a number of factors that we need to consider before using it.

The pre-ORDER functionality on the PS Store works the same as it always has. You guys know that GTA V is far from the first title we’ve ever had on pre-order, but unfortunately there was some mis-information out there that stated we can set up pre-loading. We can not at this time.

I do apologize for seeing the misinformation out there which seems to have started just last Friday.The internet can be a funny place and mis-information can spread like wildfire, but I’m afraid that any element of pre-loading as a reason to pre-order has never been pointed to by SCEA, as cool as it would be.

Guys, the game will drop at midnight tonight, and yes it will take a bit o ‘ time to download; but that’s par for the course in the digital space ^__^. You’re going to have a great game in your hands soon, so look forward to the good times that await!”

The “misinformation” he’s referring to must be this, the official Rockstar Twitter claiming the feature would be enabled for US gamers.

Those who've pre-ordered #GTAV on PSN will be able to preload the game as follows: Sunday 3pm BST in Europe; Monday 3am EST in the US

To put it mildly, this is not convenient, and a clear sign of how inferior Sony’s “Day 1 Digital” service is in comparison to, say, Steam, where pre-loading is a regular way of life.

Furthermore, note that GTA V can be downloaded at 12 AM EST, not PST like the PlayStation Store currently states. That’s also causing confusion, but it’s also good news–you can start that 36 gig download a few hours earlier.

@Wario64 confirmed GTA V will be on the PS Store tonight, midnight, EST.